4 Design Thinking Tools Any Company Can Use To Innovate

On this episode, you’re going to meet Duncan Wardle. Duncan spent 30 years at arguably the best-known brand in the world – Disney. In his last role he was a global executive in charge of something most companies don’t even identify as a function in the business. That function is innovation. As Vice President of Innovation & Creativity it was his job to invent new ways to generate revenue.

We think of innovation as something that companies DO, but in reality, it’s the people in those companies who innovate. The problem is most people aren’t given the time OR the tools to innovate. After 30 years in a global corporate brand, Duncan has started his own company – ID8&INNOV8 – where he travels the globe helping companies – many of which are household brand names – overcome the challenges associated with innovating.

This episode is sponsored by SAP. Download the ungated case study: Savvy Social Selling the SAP Way and learn how SAP sales reps have deals that are 560% larger on average using social selling techniques. This case study is available for download without a form to fill – just click to open the PDF in your browser at https://Vengreso.com/sap

4 Barriers To Creativity And Innovation In Most Organizations

One of the most interesting things Duncan revealed during this conversation is that very few people say that they have their best ideas while they are at work. That means there’s a disconnect in the way companies are trying to encourage their team members to innovate – because they try to make it happen while the team is at work without addressing the reasons creativity is hampered.

What is it about being at work that blocks creativity?

Duncan says there are four common barriers to creativity and innovation in most organizations:

A lack of time. Policies, procedures, processes, and more keep employees busy, not allowing much time for creativity

Companies tend to have no common definition of creativity or innovation, so those working together have a hard time rowing in the same direction

Companies tend to be risk averse instead of risk courageous, which causes them to miss the opportunity to be customer-centric

Ideas tend to get stuck or killed as they move through the organization toward implementation

Do you see any of these present in your workplace? The answer is not to get out of the office but to learn new ways of approaching the innovation process.

Why We Need Design Thinking Tools To Help Us Innovate and Create

Every human being is creative in some way, but we all struggle to believe it. That’s because from a very young age we’ve been told that there is a special group of people who are creative – and we’re likely not among them.

Besides that, we’ve each built our own areas of experience and expertise. The strengths that come with expertise are predicated on the attainment of knowledge, facts, and certainty upon which we base our decisions and observations. That locks us into patterns and styles of thinking that are diametrically opposed to creativity.

Design thinking tools enable us to turn problems or challenges into games that magically switch the brain to “What if?” mode rather than “It won’t work” mode. Duncan believes this kind of approach can help businesses and sales organizations discover new ways of serving customers.

How To Use The Words “Yes, and” To Get Creativity And Innovation Going

Many companies or teams organize “brainstorming” sessions to enable people to work toward innovative solutions together. The problem is that the work environment fosters a “stressed brain” condition that prohibits creativity. Duncan says there are a handful of design thinking tools that can be used to move the team out of that state.

One of his favorites is this: Anytime a person has a new idea or raises an objection to an idea, someone on the team should respond with the phrase, “Yes, and…” That kind of response opens the door to possibilities rather than leaving the idea or objection as a hard and fast obstacle that can’t be overcome. As a bonus outcome, using this approach causes most teams to experience the success as a team effort rather than the result of one person’s contribution.

Duncan says this is an example of how being playful enables the brain to relax – which causes creativity to increase. Learn more about how to spark creativity and innovation in your company by listening to this conversation with Duncan Wardle.

How Design Thinking Tools Can Be Applied Specifically To A B2B Context

All through this conversation, Duncan insists that design thinking tools apply to a B2B context as well as any other. Bernie wanted to hear Duncan’s specific reasons behind that assertion and his answer was simple but powerful.

He pointed out that some business leaders have never physically gotten out of their controlled, comfortable environment to get into the shoes of their customer. That puts them at a disadvantage immediately because they don’t truly know their customer’s needs or their experience with the product or service they offer. Duncan says that if companies are unwilling to take that critical step, they may innovate but what they come up with may not be relevant to their customers.

Featured on This Episode

Outline of This Episode

[2:31] How Duncan became the director of Innovation and Creativity for Disney

[7:44] Why we need tools to help us learn to innovate and create

[16:02] How does a company go through the process of innovating toward reinvention?

[19:06] Why do the best ideas not typically come to us at work?

[23:15] The power of bringing in a naive expert

[29:09] How design thinking and creativity can work in the B2B context

Resources & People Mentioned

Be sure to download the case study that accompanies the podcast series – Social Business Journal Volume 11. It weaves together the narrative of social selling success factors at SAP. It’s available for download, ungated here.

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Bernie Borges

Bernie Borges is CMO of Vengreso, the leader in digital sales transformation. He's also Host of the award winning Modern Marketing Engine podcast. His book Marketing 2.0, was an early playbook in social media strategy. Bernie is also a trainer and speaker. He has a passion for guiding clients in aligning marketing and sales for accelerated revenue results. Bernie enjoys kayaking with his family in Tampa Bay, going to hockey games and you'll find him at the gym at 6am Monday through Friday, rain or shine.